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Ochlocracy triumphs but Vegemite comes home!

I don’t find it at all impossible to foresee a moment in which criticism carries a price that cannot be reasonably reckoned in advance. Once people have stopped believing in the sanctity of opinion, once they have been convinced that some vast and vague category, like “elites,” holds views not merely wrong but traitorous.

Trump, like his idol Vladimir Putin, will need only a glancing comment to mark an enemy to be hounded. Breitbart News can do the hard work of weaving a tweet into a narrative of betrayal. And if something terrible happens? That won’t be President Trump’s fault, of course, or Breitbart’s. Then courage really will come at a price, and we may yearn for the days when you could live your whole life without knowing if you were a coward.

Do I think this will happen? No, I don’t. I think Trump will fail on one front after another, steadily drop in the polls, lose his ability to dictate congressional action with a tweet, and go into a monumental sulk. Or rather, that’s what I hope will happen. But if this election has taught me anything, it’s not to trust my hopes.

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